Season 1

Episodes

Premiere

Finale

Release

Network

Release Date

Chronology

Next Season

Season 1 of The Orville debuted on September 10, 2017 to 8.56 million viewers, the most-watched series premiere on Fox since Empire in 2015.[1] It was renewed for a second season on November 2 of that year.[2]

According to creator Seth MacFarlane, the first season was a "tonal experiment" in dramatic science fiction television peppered with comedy. In the months following the first season's finale, MacFarlane said that he felt that the seriousness of the second half of the season led to more impactful and enjoyable stories, and it shaped the direction of the show going forward.[3]

The Orville's first season was intended for a limited 13-episode run. However, on November 14, Fox confirmed that it would move the twelfth episode to the second season.[4] While Fox did not comment on its decision, the move is not unusual for the company.

Contents

In September 2419, Ed is promoted to Captain of the USS Orville and Kelly assigned as his First Officer.[5] Aided by a crew of talented, if surprisingly normal, officers, they receive missions from the Planetary Union; explore space, planets, and other civilizations; and battle their foe, the Krill. The first season takes place entirely in one quadrant of the galaxy.

Ed and Kelly's relationship fundamentally evolves. Ed is hostile to Kelly at the start, but over time learns to trust her as an officer and as a friend. Kelly is remorseful of her affair but prizes her duties to the ship above all else. In the winter of 2420, Ed and Kelly are forced to work with Darulio to end the Navarian-Bruidian conflict, during which Ed learns that she may have been under the influence of Darulio's powerful sex pheromones, and he slowly begins to forgive her.[6]

Around April, Ed learns that it was Kelly's appeals to Union admiralty that won him the captain's seat. Initially resentful that he was promoted not by the strength of his resume but through backdoor politicking, he accepts that "no man is an island" and that the help of his friends should be welcomed, not spurned.[7] Ed and Kelly briefly date around April or May 2420 but they end their nascent relationship after Ed's ability to command is compromised by his feelings for her.[8]

The relationship of Second Officer Bortus and his mate Klyden is seriously tested. The birth of a female daughter, Topa, sparks a rift between them when Klyden demands her sex be surgically altered to male. After a lengthy tribunal on Moclus, Klyden wins and Topa undergoes the procedure.[9] Bortus and Klyden remain together but they frequently fight, Bortus spends increasingly long hours at work, and Klyden starts obsessively overeating.

Chief of Security Alara Kitan receives her first senior officer position on the Orville with Ed. She begins as an anxious and inexperienced - if capable - young officer, but she is soon thrust into the Captain's chair and earns the Sapphire Star for leadership.[10] In March 2420, Alara controversially runs a dangerous program in the Environmental Simulator to test herself, but Ed spares her from a formal reprimand.[11] Alara matured from a green Chief of Security to a seasoned bridge officer.

Navigator John LaMarr begins his tenure under Captain Mercer as a laid-back officer, but Kelly discovers he is a brilliant officer and begins a private campaign to promote John to Chief Engineer. Ed is skeptical, the Navigator was often responsible for immature jokes and churlish pranks, but is won over when John rescues the Orville from incoming enemy Krill. John is promoted shortly thereafter, much to Lieutenant Yaphit's chagrin.[7]

Doctor Claire Finn requests a transfer to the Orville in September 2419. She treats Science Officer Isaac coldly, irritated the artificial lifeform believes himself to be better than other life. After the Finns and Isaac survive the cannibals of an unnamed moon, Claire warms up to Isaac. Yaphit repeatedly attempts to woo Claire, sometimes to the point of harassment. The two eventually copulate under the influence of Darulio's pheromones, and do not speak again.

Fox produced a nearly-three minute promotional trailer published on May 15, 2017 that functioned as a teaser for both the series premiere, Old Wounds, and the season. The trailer focused on many of the comedic elements of the series through humorous highlights of the first four episodes, as well as some action sequences.

The Orville is written as an episodic, semi-serialized television show with allegorical themes. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of each season is serialized content that draws from earlier episodes, such as character arcs and long-running narratives like the Union's battle with the Krill. Most episodes are allegorical and criticize facets of culture, especially of American culture.[12]

Writing and production staff developed the show's storylines episodically. Episodes were constructed to examine fundamental moral themes, to encourage audiences to re-evaluate aspects of culture, or to develop the characters. Every episode touches on many themes, and some episodes can fit multiple interpretive categories.

Krilland Mad Idolatry look at the confluence and clash of religion and moral progress. The technologically developed Krill are also extremely religious, which motivates them to commit atrocities in the name of Avis, their supreme deity. The people of the multiphasic planet construct a religion around Kelly, but lose faith in gods "naturally" as they evolve as a society. The Krill society is often contrasted against the multiphasic planet species as responding to similar circumstances in radically different ways.

The pilot Old Wounds is an exception to the above. The episode is considered "foundational," the world of the Orville is established for audiences for the first time, and so is neither allegorical nor a character piece.

The first few episodes were more comedic and spiritful than the second half of the season. This was no accident. MacFarlane penned lighthearted scripts to secure funding from Fox. "[T]he early episodes were an experiment to get the response we wanted from the studio," he later recollected while filming of Season 2. "And they’ve given us more time and resources to film more complex scenes."[15]

Filming began on January 13, 2017 at 6:30 AM and ended on August 23.[17] The pilot Old Wounds aired only several weeks later on September 10. Editing of the episodes continued at least through November 20, 2017, when Goodman and MacFarlane admitted that they were still editing the final episode, Mad Idolatry.[18]

At the end of filming Old Wounds, the cast and crew celebrated with a wrap party at MacFarlane's house[19] with music disc-jockeyed by Favreau[20] and drinks and food served by staff dressed as aliens from the show.[21]

The visual and digital effects teams allotted twelve days for each episode for post-production editing, a schedule they discovered was too tight. Editors and effects artists were simply unable to correct production errors before airing. For example, even though visual and digital effects supervisors Luke McDonald and Brandon Fayette spotted an incorrect call sign on the shuttle in Into the Fold, there was not enough time to re-render the scene, and they were forced to leave the mistake in. Some episodes were edited even as late as the same day they aired.[22]

Season 1 served as a learning experience in time budgeting. The show boasted some 4,000 visual effects shots that season, and the second was expected to double that number; so the second season was broken into thirds, with a month-long hiatus in between to grant post-production teams more editing time.[23]

The season order of episodes during early production was very different from what aired. Originally, About a Girl was second, If the Stars Should Appear third, and Command Performance fourth. An additional episode, Primal Urges, was scheduled as the twelfth episode of the season but Fox moved it to Season 2 for undisclosed reasons.[24]

Starting in early 2017, MacFarlane began changing the order of episodes and, resultantly, the progression of the show's narration was modified. If the Stars Should Appear performed poorly with test audiences and was moved to the fourth slot and Command Performance was made the second episode.[24] However, the change led to continuity problems that had to be corrected.

A plot point where Bortus leaves to brood his egg was added to Command Performance to segue neatly to About a Girl's story.

New scenes were added, such as Bortus and Klyden arguing in their bedroom at the start of If the Stars Should Appear.

Some incongruous scenes remained. For example, Doctor Claire Finn mentions that Lieutenant Yaphit has wooed her for some time in About a Girl but seems unfamiliar with his motives in If the Stars Should Appear.

General television audiences adored The Orville and ratings were very strong. Seth MacFarlane was delighted by the response of fans to Season 1: "I was waiting to see if people would tolerate actual storytelling and whether they were going to say, 'Shut up, and keep the jokes coming.' I was pleasantly surprised that people were willing to let us be what we wanted to be."[25]

In retrospect, MacFarlane said that the first season was a "tonal experiment" in dramatic science fiction television peppered with comedy. In the months following the first season's finale, MacFarlane said that he felt that the seriousness of the second half of the season led to more impactful and enjoyable stories, and it shaped the direction of the show going forward.[3]

However, professional television critics largely panned the The Orville, and it became one of the most polarized television shows of 2017, with a wide divide between public and professional opinion. According to Rotten Tomatoes, only 23 percent of professional critics gave The Orville a positive review yet 93 percent of general audiences rated it favorably,[26] leading to some to sharply criticize the critics themselves as out of touch with regular viewers and biased.[27]